The hominoids had served their purpose. Moffat would distract the Time Commandos and by the time they realized their mistake. it would be too late for them to do a thing about it.
Steiger heard the door open and, slowly raised his head, staring at the newcomer through swollen eyes. He was dressed in well-tailored, elegant colonial, clothing with a silk brocade waistcoat and lace at the throat and cuffs. He heard the man expel his breath sharply as he saw him.
“Jesus Christ.” he said, staring at Steiger. “What the hell is going on here? What did you do to him?”
“Softened him up a little,” said the other man, still wearing the black leather gloves he’d donned to administer the beating.
“What for?’ said the man who’d just come through the door.
“What for? What are you, crazy? Don’t you know what’s going on? Don’t you know who this guy is?”
“Do you?”
“You’d damn well better believe I do.” the gloved man said. “He’s Col. Creed Steiger, head of the goddamned I.S.D.”
“You didn’t have to do this.” said the newcomer, his mouth tight. “There was no call for this.”
“No call for it? Are you nuts? The son of a bitch is lucky he’s alive! There’s a contract out on him, in case you didn’t know. You know what he’s worth dead?”
“Is that what it’s come, to, Stevens?” said the newcomer.
“We’re taking contracts now? We’re hitting our own people’?”
“Shut up, you stupid bastard! Don’t use my name in front of him!”
“What difference does it make? Do you intend to let him live?”
“Only as long as necessary.” Stevens said grimly. “They got Carruthers. They took out Stiers and Aaronson, as well. Left no trace of them, not even a wet spot on the floor. This bastard’s our security. They come after us, we got a hostage.”
“How much is he worth dead?” asked the newcomer.
“A smooth five mil.” said Stevens. “Five million fucking dollars.”
“And you’d kill one of our own people for it,” said the newcomer.
“He’s not one of our people, you damn fool! He’s I.S.D.!”
“And what the hell is the I.S.D.?” the newcomer snapped.
“It’s the internal security division of the goddamn agency, you moron!’
“Don’t talk to me that way!”-Do you even realize what you’re doing?” the newcomer said. “It’s one thing to run a few illegal operations to make some money, but what you’re talking about now is murder!”
“They took out Carruthers and the others,” Stevens said harshly. “What do you call that?”
“Carruthers must’ve forced their hand. He went too far. When I heard what he was planning, I thought he had gone crazy. We’re supposed to be helping these people, for God’s sake! There’s a temporal disruption going down! We’re supposed to be on the same damn side!”
“Is that so?” said Stevens. He jerked his head toward Steiger. “Is that why this son of a bitch is trying to nail us? Because we’re on the same side? Don’t make me laugh. He sold out, the bastard. He was a field agent, just like us, and he sold out!”
“To whom?”
“To the goddamned bureaucrats and politicians, that’s to whom! Jesus, will you wake the hell up? This isn’t some game we’re playing here! This isn’t the goddamned Boy Scouts! Forester sent this guy to take us out. He’s out to bust the whole damn Network! We’ve gotta take them out before they get us first!”
“Them?” said the newcomer. “Wait a minute, let me get this straight. Are we talking about assassinating the director of the T.I. A.?”
“You’re damn straight!” said Stevens. “And the bounty on the old man’s been set at ten million! Where the hell you been? Me. I’m not crazy enough to try for Forrester. but Steiger here fell right into our laps. You don’t want a share, just say so. You can go back to Virginia and plant tobacco for all I fucking care. Go anywhere the hell you want, but I’m telling you right now, you get in my way. I’m gonna roll right over you.”
“That’s the way it is. huh?”
“That’s the way it is.”
“And what about the disruption?”
“Who gives a fuck about the damn disruption? We send this jerk to the cell commander in a bag and we can all retire. Especially now that Carruthers and the others have been taken out. We don’t have to cut the pie as thin.”
“I see, I guess that does make for an incentive.”
“You better believe it.” Stevens said.
The newcomer walked over to where Steiger sat, firmly tied down to a stout chair. He took him by the hair and pulled his head back so that he could look down into his eyes. Steiger squinted up at him. The man’s face was expressionless.
“He’d really take us out, wouldn’t he’?” the man said.
“In a minute.”
“I suppose that would make it self-defense, then.”
Stevens grinned. “Yeah, I guess it would.”
“Five million dollars is a lot of money,” said the man in front of Steiger. “And I suppose if a temporal disruption did go down, we could always clock back further, where we wouldn’t have to worry about it. Go underground. kick back and take it easy… “
“Now you’re talkin’.” Stevens said.
“I mean, between the rest of us in this section, we’ve already got a tidy sum salted away. Then there’re the goods in the warehouses in Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston, we could easily liquidate those at a fat profit. wouldn’t have to cut that pie as thin, either… “
“Now you’re getting the idea.” Stevens said.
“You know, when you look at it that way. I suppose it does make a lot of sense-the man said, still looking down at Steiger with no expression on his face. He let his head drop and turned around to face Stevens. “Personally, I never cared much for Carruthers anyway.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about Carruthers now,” said Stevens.
“So tell me. what are we still doing here? We’ve got Steiger, why don’t we just blow? Why take chances?”
“Because we don’t know if Carruthers talked. Cash wants to make sure. He thinks they’re onto us and he wants to cover our tracks before we risk moving the stuff. And there’s still that shipment coming in.”
“That’s stupid. Why worry about that? If Steiger’s worth five million dead…
“Cash said-”
“Yeah, well, I never cared much for Cash, either.” The man turned around and walked over to the window. He pulled open the drapes and looked out. “If you ask mc. Cash is too damn greedy. So what if Carruthers talked? Who cares about the shipment’? The way things arc, hanging around here’s way too risky.”
“We stand to lose a lot if we leave now.” said Stevens. “Cash says long as we’ve got Steiger-
“Long as we’ve got Steiger, who needs Cash?” the other man said, still looking out the window. “Who needs any of them? We’ve got five million sitting right there in that chair. Split two ways… I mean, we could always tell the cell commander that the commandos got Cash and the others, couldn’t we?”
“Yeah… said Stevens. slowly. “Yeah, I suppose we could at that.”
The man at the window turned around. There was a small stinger pistol in his hand. He fired and the needle dart struck Stevens in the chest. Stevens stared at him with astonishment, then collapsed to the floor.
“You stupid asshole.” the man said, looking down at Stevens with contempt. “You’d kill your own mother for a buck.”
He walked over to where Steiger sat. “So you’re worth five million dollars. huh?” he said, still holding the pistol.
Steiger said nothing.
He put away the pistol. “I just saved your life, Colonel. I sure hope you’re the grateful sort.” He walked around behind the chair, took out a knife, and sliced through Steiger’s bonds. He came around in front of him again.
“Can you stand?”
Steiger stared up at him uncertainly. “I’ll manage.” he said thickly. His lips were cut and swollen and several teeth had been loosened. He lurched to his feet unsteadily. “I don’t get it. How come you’re doing this?”